


i'm the light blinking at the end of the road (blink back to let me know)

by MoreHeartLessAttack



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Awkward Keith (Voltron), Cuddling, Early Relationship, First Time Cuddling, Firsts, Kick, M/M, Post Season 8, Sick Lance (Voltron), Snuggling, i am optimistic klance trash, klance is canon king, so i'm writing post season 8 klance fics, told you i'm klance trash i wasn't kidding, under the assumption klance will be canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-27 19:46:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16226072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoreHeartLessAttack/pseuds/MoreHeartLessAttack
Summary: Keith shouldn't have been surprised. If he'd learned anything about Lance over the past few years, it was that he was rarely predictable. Expect the unexpected, as they say.But Keith had no idea Lance even knew where his new Garrison room was, let alone the door code. Returning from a long day of aiding in recovery efforts to find Lance asleep in his bed wasn't just unexpected - it was completely off the radar. So excuse him if his jaw dropped a little.





	i'm the light blinking at the end of the road (blink back to let me know)

**Author's Note:**

> I am so optimistic for season 8. Season 7 was such a s e t u p for klance. i mean the entire series has been but there's a LOT in season 7 if you look. i've read and watched every klance meta available and it all makes so much sense. Please don't rain on my parade just let me dream. 
> 
> but anyway yes, this is written under the assumption they will become canon in like the very last episode. enjoy my first-time-cuddling, tooth rotting garbage!!

* * *

 

_When the world gets too heavy, put it on my back_

_I'll be your levy_

_You are taking me apart like bad glue_

_On a get-well card_

 

_It was always you, falling for me_

_Now there's always time, calling for me_

_I'm the light blinking at the end of the road_

_Blink back to let me know_

 

**_"Always" - Panic! At the Disco_ **

* * *

 

Keith shouldn't have been surprised. If he'd learned anything about Lance over the past few years, it was that he was rarely predictable. Expect the unexpected, as they say. 

But Keith had no idea Lance even knew where his new Garrison room _was_ , let alone the door code. Returning from a long day of aiding in recovery efforts to find Lance asleep in his bed wasn't just unexpected - it was completely off the radar. So excuse him if his jaw dropped a little.

Keith allowed himself a brief moment of faltering in the doorway before taking a few slow steps into the room, hearing the automatic door hiss shut behind him. With the lights off and the post-sunset dusk visible outside his window, the dorm was unreasonably dark, and Keith felt a sudden sense of unbelonging. Like _he_ was the one intruding here.

"You're something else, you know that?" He mumbled beneath his breath, warily eyeing the figure bundled beneath his covers as he shrugged out of his uniform jacket and draped it over the desk chair.

He stood for a long few minutes, staring. It was suddenly hitting him that he'd never seen Lance asleep before. He always thought a quiet Lance would be heavenly and refreshing. If anything, it was actually very unsettling. Keith found himself watching the slight rise and fall of Lance's chest, just to be sure.

This was - well, this was uncharted territory. He and Lance had only been a "thing" for a couple of weeks. Would it be okay to just...get in bed next to him and sleep? Or would that be weird? Was Lance _expecting_ to be woken up and kicked out upon Keith's return, or would that hurt his feelings?

It would probably hurt his feelings. Keith was learning via trial and error which of his antisocial tendencies could be taken as personal offenses. Kicking his sleeping boyfriend out of bed was probably one of them.

He decided on an ambiguous _how the hell did you even find my room_ as an icebreaker.

But as Keith kicked off his shoes and shuffled across the bed to sit next to Lance's sleeping form, hand outreached to shake him awake, it struck him that Lance's breathing did not seem peaceful. It was rhythmic and deep, but the inhales were harsh and the exhales rattled.

His hair stuck to his forehead and neck, and sweat dripped down his face from his temple to his jaw. At the same time, he shivered beneath his heap of coverings. A cautious lowering of the quilt Lance clutched beneath his chin revealed flushed red cheeks against a sickly shade-too-light complexion. 

Keith frowned, feeling a sharp pang of something like concern shoot through him. He slipped a hand first beneath the sheets and then the hem of Lance's shirt, uncomforted by the heat that met his palm when he laid it flat against the other paladin's back.

Lance flinched at the contact, groaning as his eyes fluttered open.

"'S that your hand or an _ice cube_ ," he grumbled in a croaking voice. Keith withdrew his hand, scoffing audibly. The tightly wound coil of worry in his chest loosened, and he reveled in the familiar, playful teasing.

"Yes, Lance, I'm doing fine, how was your day?" Keith asked. "Mine was great. Thanks for asking."

Lance groaned even louder, rolling onto his back and blinking blearily up at Keith. 

"Can it, Mullet," he said without much conviction. He squeezed his eyes shut again, eyebrows drawn and mouth pinched, and exhaled shakily. "Don't feel good."

Keith, sensing the more serious mood shift, slipped his hand back beneath the covers to run his knuckles lightly down the inside of Lance's forearm. 

"I know," he said simply. "Do you need anything? Have you been drinking enough?"

"Took ibuprofen. Drank some water." Lance opened his eyes, and Keith felt his breath catch a little at the obvious affection in his gaze. "Just waitin' for you."

"Why?" Keith asked, maybe a little too bluntly.

Lance's eyes got suddenly misty, and he blinked them a few times. For a moment, Keith feared he'd said the wrong thing again. He did that a lot.

"I just..." Lance shook his head as if to clear it, then brought his arms out of the blanket to stretch them in Keith's direction. His fingers made little grabby motions towards him. "C'mere. Please."

Keith stared blankly at Lance's hands for several seconds before realizing he was being asked to lie down with him. 

That was...weird. Wasn't it? They held hands. They kissed. They made out against walls in empty hallways, bodies pressed flush against one another, Lance moaning into his mouth as Keith pinned his wrists to the wall above his head.

But they'd never... _cuddled_. Somehow, the idea felt far more intimate than any sloppy, hormone-induced frenzy of lips and tongues could ever be. 

Lance looked so soft and sincere, though, and also about five seconds away from crying. Keith couldn't find a reason to say no. He pulled the covers down from the other side of the bed and settled stiffly beneath them. 

Lance latched onto him immediately, curling his too-warm body into Keith's side. His nose nuzzled against the crook where Keith's neck met his shoulder. He sighed in obvious content, relaxing heavily against him. Keith had to force his own muscles to untense, slowly, one at a time.

It wasn't as weird as he thought it would be. There was nothing cheesy or sappy about it. It was just - _nice_. Comforting, even. The minutes passed in silence, but the silence wasn't stilted in the slightest. There was nothing to say that they both didn't already know.

Keith's fingers found their way into Lance's hair of their own accord, working through sweat-soaked tangles to gently massage his scalp.

"Is this okay?" Lance whispered into Keith's skin eventually.

"Yeah," Keith said, in full honesty. "Yeah, it's okay."

It was more than okay. It was really, really nice. He didn't even mind Lance sniffling wetly right by his ear, which surprised Keith, because it was pretty gross. 

Being close to Lance like this wasn't just _okay_. It was ideal.

"'S nice of them to let us have these big staff rooms instead of the old student dorms," Lance said. "Those rooms sucked."

"Well, we _did_ kind of save the entire planet," Keith pointed out. "I think we at least deserve some extra closet space."

Lance pulled his head away just slightly enough for Keith to see him roll his eyes. 

"I meant the _beds_ ," Lance waggled his eyebrows in a way Keith was sure he meant to be seductive, but the effect was lost in how miserably sick he looked. "The _beds_ are bigger."

Keith scoffed, pressing Lance's head back down to rest on his chest.

"Try talking smooth to me again when you're not a dripping mucus faucet."

"Wow, _rude_." Keith felt Lance's lips turning upward against his shirt. "Hey Keith?"

"Hm?"

"I love you," Lance said softly. The transparency of it all sent a deep warmth that had nothing to do with Lance's fevered skin spreading through Keith. "Like...a lot."

"I love you, too." Keith paused, then tacked on, "A lot."

It wasn't the first time they'd exchanged love-you's, but their relationship was new enough that the words still shook Keith to his core every time. He'd spent years feeling it, but never acting, never speaking. Knowing that Lance _knew_ , that he felt the same way, and that they could say it any time they wanted - it was practically euphoric. 

Lance pressed warm, chapped lips to Keith's jaw. "G'night."

"Goodnight."

Lance was asleep before Keith remembered to ask, seriously, how the _hell_ he knew Keith's room location and code.

He asked in the morning, when Lance's skin was a more normal temperature and his eyes were a little more clear. He claimed it was all Pidge's doing.

(Pidge said it was impossible to say no to a flushed, miserable, puppy-eyed Lance with a blanket around his shoulders and a wobbling chin. Keith couldn't even blame her.)


End file.
